Rock News

Steve Perry recovering from skin cancer

Journey's former lead singer says he's recovering from a bout with skin cancer. Steve Perry shares in his blog that doctors recently removed a cancerous mole from his face.

He adds that he was told they "think they got it all," and no further treatment is required. In the blog post, the 64-year-old Perry also describes the loss of his girlfriend Kellie Nash to breast cancer last December.

"As I said in my last birthday message January 2013, "There's so much more I'd like to share with you but that will have to come at another time"........

Well, I guess the time is now!.......In May of 2011, I was with Patty Jenkins in an editing room as she was putting the final editing touches on what was to be the closing segment of a Lifetime Channel breast cancer special called "Five." As the opening scenes camera panned across an outside hospital patio, a narrator's voice commented on their lives and their types of cancer. The camera came across this girl sitting there laughing….. I saw her smile.

When the scene was over I said to Patty, "Can you roll to the top of that opening scene for me?" Patty asked, "Is something wrong?" I said, "No. I want to see something." As the camera again crossed Kellie's smile I asked her to freeze right there.……. I asked Patty who that was. She said, "That's Kellie Nash, a PHD Psychologist who was diagnosed with breast cancer, had a double mastectomy and she's doing a cameo appearance."

I asked if Patty had her email, She said, "Yes" but looked at me strange because she knows I don't do that. I asked if she would send Kellie an email that your friend Steve would love to take her to coffee or lunch sometime.

Patty agreed to do so but said, "Before I do that I think there's something I should tell you first. After a 3 year battle she was in remission for 8 months then it came back in her lungs and bones and now she's Stage 4 fighting for her life."

I was frozen……. I didn't know what to do…….. I had lost my mom, dad, grandparents that raised me and I was an only child so my first thought was to maybe not send the email; then my heart said, Maybe we could be friends or maybe she could be my shrink. So I said, "Please send it."